Category: trends
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Google Firestarters Episode 18: Rachel Mercer
An insightful episode of Google Firestarters with Rache Mercer, co-founder and CXO of Proto and ex VP, Head of Strategy at R/GA New York
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Future-Back
I've done some backcasting before now in my work with clients but I liked the way this is framed in this article in terms of how most leaders think 'present-forwards' rather than 'future-back' 'Present-forward leaders build their organizations in increments, following the rules and procedures that work today. Future-back leaders, in contrast, visualize what their…
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The Age of the Superstar Teacher
In his latest post Mario Gabriele digs into the potential for whether we'll now start to see superstar teachers emerging in the same way that we've seen superstar streamers, gamers, personal fitness instructors and sports stars: 'Sherwin Rosen's 1981 paper explains why exceptional teachers have been unable to profit from their abilities as effectively as…
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Data-as-a-Service
I've been writing a new report on marketing structures and resourcing and in the research process came across the concept of 'Data-as-a-Service' (DaaS) via Ashley Friedlein's annual trends post which I think is a useful way of thinking about how to set up data services to underpin a business. The idea of DaaS is that…
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AI and Human Learning
This Scientific American opinion piece on the remarkable similarities in how machine learning models and hunter-gatherer children acquire knowledge is fascinating. If we define artificial intelligence as the ability of computer systems to perform tasks that would typically need human intelligence then it's clear that we're just at the beginning of the 'S-curve'. Right now…
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The Paradox of Automation
This post from Marc Rubinstein (which was shortlisted for this month's Post of the Month vote) on the lessons from the tragic crash of Air France Flight 447 ten years ago gathered together a number of interesting concepts. One of these was the so-called 'paradox of automation', which is the idea that: '…the more efficient…
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Monzo and Transparency
There's a lot to like in how (challenger bank) Monzo go about things. As well as creating genuinely customer-centric propositions that disrupt some of the complex nonsense involved in financial services, it's the way in which they do stuff which is so refreshing. Check out, for example, their tone of voice guide which instead of…
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Automation and Wicked Problems
Glyn Britton made a good point in his piece about how AI and automation may actually free us up to be more human by enabling people to stop doing work that can actually be better done by machines. '…what if we turn the narrative around? Look at AI and automation as a opportunity to repair,…
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The Role for Hyper-personalisation
I don't usually like pre-fixes like 'hyper' as they rarely add much meaning (personalisation is just personalisation, right?) but I think the extent to which Netflix uses sophisticated content personalisation is sufficiently distinctive to justify the hyperbole. In a recent post on the Netflix technology team blog they describe, for example, how they use data…
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The Reality of How Marketing is Changing
Each year Scott Brinker's amazing work tracking and mapping the changing marketing technology landscape reminds us of just how much the discipline and function of marketing is changing. Last year's survey mapped more than 5,000 separate martech solutions and you would have been forgiven for believing then that the market must surely have reached its…